This looks like a very nice, simple forum and not a bloated resource hog like some of the others.

I am trying to determine how much server you need to power the site. I have a lower end VPS.

If you don't have a definitive answer and you are using a VPS , please share your specs.

Good share host will be just fine; VPS will be too.

If you start with miniBB, I think, you don't have to give yourself a question "will it work with my server", 'cause in 99% of cases it will :) but gradually as your forum grows you should analyze it and add more powers to your VPS, if necessary.

Actually it all depends on the amount of instant visitors, which affects the processor load and memory space. Some our customers running active forums with about 200-300 instant visitors switched to a dedicated server. Dedicated server is still the best option for heavy traffic projects.

But for a start, you don't have to own a lot of resources. I suppose, even some medium plan on a shared hosting could work for a start. VPS definitely should work.

Paul

Thank you for your personal reply.

I am fairly sure as you used it 'instant' means concurrent . I doubt that will happen for a very long time. :)

You're right, I was about concurrent visitors (those hitting website once in a time period and which are handled by miniBB's Who's Online add-on).

If you don't plan to invest a lot in promotion, and/or if your niche is not absolutely unique and hardly missing on today's online markets, then you will spend some time to reach some huge visitors amount. By that moment, you will surely collect more infos about your configuration and server load and then you could switch to a more powerful VPS or dedicated plan *if ever needed*.

Actually that's about the Philosophy of miniBB... you start from basic things, smaller things. Then if you grow, you move to more difficult things and add more features to your project, this also may affect the hosting plan.

In the ancient ages, we were keeping miniBB on a very basic shared hosting, but as soon the amount of visitors started to come up to 1,000 hosts per day, then we moved to another server. I guess on VPS the amount of hosts could be quite bigger (but still it has a border line which couldn't be crossed).

Paul
What about the shared server? As newbie, is it possible on shared server as well?

PravinD
Of course, it is possible. Shared hosting plan just should meet software requirements.

Ok, Thanks